What if Dan and Amy weren't Madrigals?
by Katherine's Sue Slayer
Summary: A replay of the events at the end of Into the Gauntlet, with Dan and Amy as Lucians, Tomases, Januses, and Ekats.
1. Chapter 1: Lucians

"It's over, silly Tomas," said Dan Trent forcefully. "The Lucians have won."

Hamilton rushed Dan, fists balled, but stopped when he heard a voice cry out, "Stop, if you value your sisters' lives."

He swirled around and saw Isabel Kabra with a gun aimed towards Madison, and Irina Spasky holding Reagan in a chokehold, her poison fingernails aimed at her arm. Hamilton could tell by Irina's face that they weren't loaded with paralyzing poison.

He slowly put his fists down, and looked around the room. Ian and Natalie Kabra stood, with smug looks on their faces, next to Dan and Amy Trent. Irina and Isabel, obviously, were threatening his sisters' lives. Sinead and Ted Starling were caring for an unconscious Alistair Oh in a corner, and their brother Ned, with Jonah Wizard, were slouched, defeated-looking, in a corner, almost unable to move.

Hope Trent stood, smiling, with a small vial in hand, next to a beaten, bloody bald man, Grace Cahill's Madrigal lawyer, undercover for the elderly Lucian lady. He had convinced her to invite members of the other branches so that the Lucians could make them look foolish. The Lucians, after discovering his true branch, had used to get all their information needed to get through the gauntlet, as well as the location of the island, and all the Madrigal Clues.

Hamilton had been the rallying point for the Starlings, Jonah Wizard, Alistair Oh, and his family, who had all been in alliance since Attleboro. He had known that the amount of Lucians on the hunt was staggering and that the other branches to unite against them. But it had all been for _nothing!_

The Lucians had threatened them all with the threat of harming their loved ones. Hamilton had traded all his clues to save his parents, Alistair, who had become like a father to the Starlings, gave his Clues up to save them, and them for him. Jonah had been unrelenting, until he saw on a TV screen two of his father's fingers cut off. Now Hope Trent and Isabel Kabra, close friends since they were teenagers, were about to duplicate Gideon's serum and rule the world.

And there was nothing Hamilton could do about it.

He watched in horror as Hope and Isabel drank the serum, and became the most powerful people on the planet.

He knew that Lucians were now in control, possibly forever. But he silently pledged that he would do whatever it took to bring the Kabras and Trents down.

**Author's note: I gave Amy and Dan the last name Trent since the Madrigals are matrilineal, but the other branches aren't. It'll be that way for all of them.**


	2. Chapter 2: Tomases

Dan and Amy Trent poured 38 liquids, metals, and plants into a small vial, then shook it violently. Huge smiles lit up their faces. Behind them, Hamilton and Reagan Holt held a bald Madrigal lawyer they had captured in a full nelson. Jonah Wizard observed the scene with worried thoughts.

_I shouldn't have disobeyed Mom back in China, _he thought. _I shoulda left him for dead in that tomb._

He thought about what Dan had told him about back in China. Apparently, Alistair had tried to make an alliance with the Trents back at the funeral, but he was beaten so bad he had to be hospitalized. The Starlings had been blown up in Philadelphia with Holt and Trent explosives. The last Jonah had heard, Ted was completely blind and Sinead had lost half her left arm. Ned got off lucky with only constant mind-numbing headaches.

_Only two days into the competition, and already the entire Ekaterina branch was out, _he thought.

Ian Kabra had felt the Trent's fury back in Japan, andhad received a broken arm and leg. He hadn't even entered the gauntlet, so Natalie was the lone Lucian representative in this final stretch.

_I pity the fool who breaks Amy Trent's heart, _Jonah thought.

The Janus branch had gotten off easy. Jonah only received a broken pinkie from beating Dan at Gran Turismo 4. He was lucky, compared to the Starlings, Alistair, or Ian.

Now, at the end of the gauntlet, the Tomases had suddenly taken control and choke-holded everyone's Clues out of them. Now Dan and Hamilton were exchanging high-fives and slugs in the arm that could have downed a small elephant. But they just laughed idiotically.

The vial was going through some kind of chemical reaction. Jonah hoped it would never stop, so the Tomases could never drink it. Jonah feared living in a world ruled by the Tomas.

He suddenly realized something: Where was Madison? He started to stand up and make sure she wasn't behind him, and then felt a blow to the head and heard a girl's voice say, "Stay down, rapper boy."

_It's hip-hop, _Jonah wanted to say. But he was too busy drowning in an ocean of pain. His last thoughts were, before falling into unconsciousness, _I hope I never wake up. It would be better than living in the Empire of the Knuckleheads._


	3. Chapter 3: Januses

Sinead couldn't believe it. The hunt had come full circle.

Here they were, begging at Mr. McIntyre's feet, absolutely clueless. Literally.

Three representatives from each branch all were standing in the great hall at Cahill Manor, begging the bald lawyer for a hint to the last clue. Ian and Natalie Kabra and Irina Spasky from the Lucians, Jonah Wizard and Amy and Dan Trent from the Janus, herself and her brothers Ned and Ted from the Ekats, and Eisenhower, Hamilton, and Reagan Holt from the Tomas. Alistair Oh had given up and returned to Korea, and Madison and Mary-Todd Holt had caught some strange disease in Africa, searching for the final Clue that had eluded all of them for months.

It had been Dan's idea. An alliance between all of the Clue hunters to find the last Clue. It had been a month since _anyone_ had found a new Clue, and Dan had realized it. He had commented on how poetic it sounded, "Four branches, working together for the first time." But his idea had got them nowhere. Now here they were, begging for a hint from an old man.

"Fine." The voice of William McIntyre boomed over Eisenhower Holt shouting threats and Irina Spasky, standing next to Sinead, muttered something in Russian, most likely a comment on how stupid the Holts were.

"I will tell you where the clue is. But you'll need my help."

"We don't need your help, old man!" screamed Eisenhower.

"Quit talking about yourself." Sinead mumbled under her breath, drawing a rare chuckle from Irina.

"You must go to fifty-three degrees north, six degrees west. A small island off the coast of Ireland. Now, decide if you need my help. I will return in five minutes. If you decline, you may not change your minds."

And with that, the lawyer left.

All eyes turned to Dan, the unofficial leader.

"No way," said Dan. "Us Janus are cool enough to make up for whatever he was gonna do."

All twelve Cahills exited, cell phones calling helicopter rental companies in Ireland.

Three hours later, the only sounds on the island were Eisenhower and Hamilton's fists pounding the door, and the buzzing of Sinead's cell phone. She woke up, and glanced at the keypad that required a Madrigal fingerprint. Then she checked her E-mail on her phone and saw a message:

From:

Subject: My Help

I told you so.

William McIntyre

Partner, McIntyre, MacArthur, Mulligan, Smood Attornies at Law

Madrigal


	4. Chapter 4: Ekats

Ian crumpled to the floor. He was being "interrogated" by Ned and Ted Starling. And by interrogated, he meant being put through all kinds of torture in an effort to make him give up his Clues.

He was not the only one being tortured, though. Some of the other teams had been bribed out of their Clues, though. Right now, Madison and Reagan Holt were staring, still in disbelief, at an autographed soccer ball by David Beckham and five season tickets to the Green Bay Packers, all courtesy of Sinead Starling. Alistair Oh was transfixed by a wad of green paper he had received in exchange for his clues. But he had also received his finger in boiling water for five minutes.

Jonah Wizard had cracked when the knife touched his skin. But Dan Trent hadn't stopped there. One giant, salted wound later, one of the most famous teenagers in the world was crying and yelling Clues mixed with bad words.

Ian found the strength to start standing. Amy Trent looked at him and said, "I think he's ready."

Ned and Ted gagged and blindfolded him, and he felt himself being carried along. Finally, he was set down and released. Amy stood in front of him, with a strange device in her hands. Two strange silver boxes sat behind her. The Starling boys were nowhere to be seen.

"Hello, Ian Cobra. Do you know what this is?" said Amy confidently, her pre-hunt stutter completely gone.

"No, I-I don't." said Ian, his famous cool breaking down.

"It can drill through solid rock. I built this out of things in my purse. In a cave. In _Korea._ Bring back any memories?"

It finally dawned on Ian. _They're torturing everyone who betrayed them._

Amy opened one of the boxes. She pulled out a few sticks of dynamite and placed them next to a stone wall. She opened the other, and unfolded it into a steel wall. "Just something I invented in my spare time."

She moved the other boxes behind it and lit the dynamite. The blast came quicker than Ian expected, and he fell to the floor.

He looked up and saw Amy folding the wall. The blast had left a small cave in the wall.

Suddenly Ned and Ted appeared out of nowhere, and bound and gagged him again.

"Do you know what's going on, Ian?" asked Amy innocently. Then, suddenly, she screamed, "You broke my heart in Korea! Now I'm gonna break your will here!"

Dan rushed up to Amy and said, "I finished scanning all the vials and stuff. Look what was written on one of them!" And he pulled out a glass vial with a recipe on it.

"Perfect," said Amy. Ned and Ted set Ian in the small cave, and then Amy pulled out a cell phone.

"Attention all Madrigal personnel, we have intruders in the gauntlet!" she said into her phone, which was broadcasting her voice through a PA system. "I repeat, we have intruders in the gauntlet!"

Ian heard the sound of breaking rock, then saw a rope ladder dropped through a new hole in the ceiling. The Trents and Starlings grabbed the ladder, and were pulled up to a helicopter piloted by Sinead Starling.

_No doubt they're already mixing the serum, _he thought. _And my clothes are ripped. How could this day get any worse?_

Then several men in black suits burst into theroom. On each man's tie, there was a black M.


End file.
